Faith in (sm)all Things

How do you know you have faith? James says, "What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions?"

Let's say I walk into a room full of people sitting around a table. The small crowd looks up with warm and welcoming smiles. The host graciously offers me a chair at the table; he even gets up and pulls it out from the table for me to come sit and enjoy the fellowship and comaraderie. Should I decline the invitation on the grounds that the chair is not strong enough to hold me? Assuming there are no obvious structural flaws in the chair, of course, I will simply have faith that the chair will hold me up and my act of sitting on it proves that I believe in the chair's ability to support my weight. Sitting in that chair is my faith in action.

Even more so, this holds true for our faith in God. Is God not stronger than a chair? Should my faith in a chair's ability to hold me be greater than my faith in God to do the same? Do I believe that God will keep His promises? It is easy to have faith to give when I have a secure income or a storehouse of savings, but will my faith move me to good works when I perceive my own lack? James presses into this point by saying, "If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled,' without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?" Is my faith shown when I give out of my wealth? Maybe. But how much more is my faith made evident when I give without full realization of my own provision?

But there it is! THERE is my faith. I do have a fullness of the realization of my own provision. Is God not my own heavenly Father? Is He not yours?

Matthew 7:9-11: “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.

It takes faith to ask. So ask! It takes faith to receive. So receive! It takes faith to give. So give! In this way faith grows. We truly live! "For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead." ~James 2:26 (ESV)